Internal combustion engine



Nqv. 20, 1934. M. J. FINNEGAN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed Dec. 18,1933 INVfiTOR ATT Patented Nov. 20,1934

" UNITED STATES COMBUSTION ENGINE Ma'rtin Finnegan, Bloomfield, N. 1.,assignor to Eclipse Aviation Corporation, East' Orange,

N. 1., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 18, 1933, SerialNo. 703,016

6 Claims. (01. 60-13) This invention relates to internal combustionengines, and more particularly to starting mechanism for such engines. a

An object of the invention is to provide, in com- 5" bination with twoor more engines, a system or method of interconnecting said-engines insuch a manner that energy may be drawn from one for the purpose ofstarting the other or others. In the preferred embodiment, as shown, theenergy drawn from the first engine is in the form of the fluid pressureinherent in the exhaust gases discharged from the exhaust manifold ofthe engine. I

Afurther feature of the invention is the provision of means operable atwill to deflect exhaust gasesor'other energized-fluid from one engine toanother, or as herein shown, to the starting mechanism associated withsuch other engine, thereby energizing such starting mechanism.sufliciently to insure a starting of said other engine upon thetransfer of the energy from the starting mechanism' to the crank-shaft,orassociated rotatable part.

The invention is'not limited to the use of any specific forni ofstarting mechanism, but those types which employ aninertia element orflywheel are particularly ;well suited for use in the herein describedsystem, for the reason that such flywheel or inertia element is capableof receiving energy at a gradual rate for subsequent transfer to theengine at a much more rapid rate, thereby exerting the necessary hightorque required to turn over the larger sizes of engines, such as areused in aircraft practice.

Inertia starters of the type just described are known in the art, andthe form reproduced in the accompanying drawing is shown in the patentto Raymond P. No. 1,691,820 and in many others of the same patentee.Such starters include, in addition to the above described flywheel, agear train and an engine -engagi g clutch located at the low speed endof the gear train, the flywheel being located at the high speed end.Such starters also include is for the purpose of illustration only, andis not designed as a definition of the limits of the invention,reference being had for this purpose to .away and sectioned, of one ofthe starting units in its relation to the associated engine crank-caseand crank-shaft.

In the drawing, each engine is shown as mounted in a housing having arearwardly extending flange serving for attachment of a section of thehousing of the associated starting unit, the starting units for therespective engines being indi-' cated by the characters 10, 11, and 12,respec-- tively, and fastening means for the starter12 being indicatedat 13 in Fig. 2 as taking the form of a plurality of attaching screwspassing into the wall of the mounting flange 14 of the engine 17, itbeing understood that the starters l0 and 11 are attached to similarflanges 14. on the engines 16 and 15, respectively. The crank-shaft orassociated rotatable part 19 of the engine 1'! w is adapted to becranked for starting the same and carries on its end a dog clutchelement21 for cooperation with a complemental clutch element 22projecting from the forward end of the casing of the starter 12 andnormally out of engagement with the cooperating clutch element 21 asshown,

the means for maintaining the clutch element22 in this disengagedposition being preferably a spring of the type shown in .the Lansingpatent above identified.

A small flywheel 24, a portion of which is shown in section in Fig; 2,is preferably mounted in the mannerindicated in the aforesaid Lansingpatent for rotation about an axis coincident with the axis of rotationof the clutch 22 and is adapted to impart such rotation (but at agreatly reduced speed) to the clutch member 22 through theinstrunge'ntality of a gear train which may be similar to that shown inthe aforesaid Len sing patent and which (in common with the other partsnot shown in; detail) forms no part, per se, of, the present invention.An operating rod 28 connectsat one end with the clutch 22 and isshiftable axially to the left as viewed in Fig. 2 to engage the clutch22 with the clutch 21, upon actuation of the bell-crank 29 projectingfrom the housing and connecting at one end with a link under the controlof the operator, and at its other end with the rock-shaft 30 which inturn imparts the axial movement above described to the rod 28 and theclutch 22, all aspointed out in greater detail in the Lansing Patent No.1,691,820.

For starting manually, a shaft 42 projects from the housing to receive ahand-crank, and its other end connects with the gear train foracceleration of the flywheel 24 in the manner explained in the aforesaidLansing patent, and by this means, if desired, the corresponding starter10 of engine 16 may be first energized and the engine 16 started inoperation by the energy thus stored in said starter 10. After thisengine 16 has been started (in this or any other desired manner) thestarting of the other engines 1'7 and 15 may be effected in sequence byoperation of the means now to be described:

Fitting over the end of section 51 of the exhaust pipe for engine 16 isa two-way connector 52 including a valve 53-of the pivoted flap type,normally occupying the position indicated in dash lines, but movable tothe full-line position when it is desired to transfer the energy ofthe'exhaust gases to the starter 12 on engine 17, for the purpose ofstarting the latter engine. Such movement may be effected by anysuitable manual control, such as link 55 and hand-rod 54. A similarvalve 56 in a similar two-way connector 5'7 is controlled by a similarhand-rod 58, and serves to control the transfer of energy from engine1'7 to a flexible connector 59 serving as a means for delivering suchenergy to any other starter unit, such as the unit 11 of engine 15, oreven back to the unit 10, if its associated engine 16 has in themeantime stalled, and is in need of recranking.

Any suitable means may be employed for transferring the energy of theexhaust gases of the working, or mother engine, to the flywheel of eachstarter unit to be energized, but as shown this is accomplished byproviding a series of vanes 61 on each flywheel, and by providing eachstarter housing with one or more inclined inlet passages, or nozzles, 62into each of which is inserted a flexible hose 59 or a more rigidconduit 63, whose other end, in either case, communicates with theexhaust conduit 51 of the mother engine. Preferably, for each inlet 62there is an exhaust passage 65, whereby the gases, after entering thebuckets or vanes 61 and exerting a rotational effect upon the flywheel,may escape from the unit. By this means the flywheel is accelerated, andwhen the desired speed is reached the operator actuates bell-crank 29 tomesh (engage) clutch 22, 21 and thereby cause a cranking of the engine,demeshing being brought about thereafter by any suitable means, such asthat disclosed in detail in the Lansing patent above identified.

It will be apparent that the flywheel is in effect a turbine rotor, orturbo flywheel, and that the vanes 61 constitute, in effect, turbineblades against which the exhaust gases act and react to produce rotationof the flywheel. The use of turbine vanes on the flywheel of an inertiastarter is not new, but it is believed to be new to utilize fluid energyfrom a mother engine for the purpose of directly energizing one or moreengine starters as a means of imparting initial rotation to the otherengines, which engines are in all other respects wholly independent ofthe mother engine, and may even be installed on separate vehicles. Theappended claims, therefore, are not limited to the flywheel constructionshown, nor even (in every instance) to the use of such a flywheel in anyof the starting units; and only certain of the claims are limited toemploying exhaust gases as the preferred form of fluid energy.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination with a pair of internal combustion engines, one havingan exhaust conduit, an inertia starter mounted adjacent the other ofsaid engines, said starter including an engine engaging member and aflywheel connected therewith, exhaust gas receiving means for actuatingsaid flywheel, and means for causing exhaust gases taken from saidconduit to be discharged against said exhaust gas receiving means toac-= celerate the flywheel to high speed prior to movement of saidengine engaging member to engine engaging position.

2. In combination with a plurality of internal combustion engines, onehaving an exhaust conduit, an inertia starter mounted adjacent each ofthe other of said internal combustion engines and each including anengine engaging member and a flywheel connected therewith, exhaust gasreceiving means for actuating said flywheel, and means for directingexhaust gases taken from said conduit against any selected one of saidexhaust gas receiving means to accelerate the corresponding fiywheel tohigh'speed prior to movement of the corresponding engine engaging memberto engine engaging position.

3. In combination with a plurality of internal combustion engines, onehaving an exhaust conduit, an inertia starter mounted adjacent each ofthe other of said internal combustion engines and each including anengine engaging member and a flywheel connected therewith, exhaust gasreceiving means associated with each of said flywheels 'for actuationthereof, and means for discharging exhaust gases from either of saidengines against the exhaust gas receiving means of the starterassociated with the other engine, to accelerate the correspondingflywheel to high speed prior to movement of the corresponding engineengaging member to engine engaging position.

4. In combination with a pair of internal combustion engines, one havingan exhaust conduit, an inertia starter mounted adjacent the other ofsaid engines, said starter including a flywheel, an engine engagingmember, driven by said flywheel, turbine vanes extending from saidflywheel, and means for conducting gases from said exhaust conduit tothe spaces between successive vanes, to energize said flywheel.

5. In combination with a pair of internal combustion engines, one havingan exhaust conduit, a starter mounted adjacent the other, said starterincluding an engine engaging member and a driving member therefor,exhaust gas receiving means for actuating said starter, and means forconducting gases from said exhaust conduit to said exhaust gas receivingmeans, to energize the starter.

6. In combination with a pair of internal combustion engines, one havingan energized fluid conduit, a starter mounted adjacent the other, saidstarter including an engine engaging memher and a driving membertherefor, fluid receiving means for actuating said driving member, andmeans for conducting fluid from said energized fluid conduit to saidfluid receiving means, ,to energize the driving member of the starter.

MARTIN J. FINNEGAN.

Hill

